Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

114 reviews

koyotekarlheinz's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I still have a lot of unanswered question and I'll just have to accept that. But the book is great for what it is and I am glad that me and my friends picked it for a buddy read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Chronic illness, Body horror, Suicide, Abandonment, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Vomit

Moderate: Death, Dementia, and Death of parent

frankyreadsbooks's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The ending??? Hello?

I do feel kind of unsatisfied that we never got an adequate answer as to what the Center really was trying to research. What about the big ass eye at the bottom of the ocean that Leah escaped from? Why did she suddenly start turning into a sea creature? How would that even work? The book is not about all of that. I understand. This book is a story of loss in a sense and part strange fiction on my opinion - a genre I enjoy greatly. Plus I want to make the connection to the "Monstrous Feminine". A theory some might be familiar with. Pretty sure you could write academic articles about this novel.

...and on that note:

I NEED MORE OF THIS BOOK. I feel like if I read it again or talk about it more I will find many more world-building details I have missed on my first read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Terminal illness, Death, Death of parent, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual content

kaanda's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Super engaging throughout. Romantic in the weirdest ways while stringing along a story that was so fun to put together as the book went on. Sad, but rewarding with a ton of beautiful lines.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Dementia

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Vomit, Gore, Violence, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Confinement, and Suicide

lisaa_sophiee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

the longest 230 pages i’ve ever read. i tabbed an highlighted the book and i still can’t grasp what actually happened between those 230 pages. 
i think most of me not enjoying the book has to do with the fact, that i’ve never been in a relationship, and that’s why all of these metaphors/descriptions on relationships and relationships ending, were just really boring to me bc i have no emotional connection to them. 

a story that was beautifully wiritten but stretched unnecessarily. you could’ve told the same story, filled with the same beautiful writing in 100 pages less. and the book only had 230 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Suicide

jmiles758's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Abandonment, and Suicide

misszoe's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Body horror

Moderate: Suicide and Death of parent

miafromorchardstreet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

wow wow wow

haunting and horrific and visceral but also tender and beautiful and romantic. completely breathtaking.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Body horror, Death, and Confinement

Minor: Suicide

bumblemee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Very beautifully written and very immersive.
I loved to get to know these women and their relationship, especially through Miris eyes. All these little details she thinks of while trying to find her Leah in the Leah that returned. It was hurtful to read, but also endearing. (My favourite was when Miri said that Leah used to pedal Miris legs when she was upset and chant "tour de france, tour de france" until Miri had to laugh. Idk, it was just so cute.) Miris voice was very clear, every obersvation and comment she made fit her perfectly. Same for Leah, but we don't get to see that much of her compared to Miri. 
I liked how the book was seperated into the different stages of the ocean and everything Leah told us about it and the ways to travel and research it. Her fascination for the ocean is everywhere and as someone who is a little fascinated by the deep as well, I liked that a lot.

Even though there's not that much happening, a lot of suspense builds up over the course of the novel. I couldn't put it down after a certain point. - And I get why we don't get all the answers, this book isn't about the plot, and I think it was the right choice, because solving every mystery would've taken away from the point ... but I can't help but want to know the answers. Someone please rewrite this in another genre? So we got both? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Blood, Death, Body horror, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent and Suicide

courtneyfalling's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Julia Armfield is going to someday write a book that's an easy 5/5 stars for me, I can feel it. This book was so lyrical and haunting and has continued to live in my psyche. I wanted so badly to rate it 5/5, but the ending was a little too open-ended on what actually happened, and I felt like the writing on a technical level was always just slightly above the writing on an emotional level for me. This was still such a good study on time and memory and grief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, and Body horror

Moderate: Death of parent and Suicide

_rowan_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Vomit, Dementia, Eating disorder, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide